Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Mayor's eMemo

The big white staircase you might have seen rising across Boise's downtown skyline on Tuesday morning was the latest addition to our city's fire and rescue arsenal.

Ladder Truck 5 is the third such vehicle in the Boise Fire Department's fleet. Headquartered at Station 5 at 16th and Front streets, the truck provides an important new emergency tool for the redeveloping downtown area as well as other areas of the city.

Big rigs like this one aren't inexpensive -- Ladder Truck 5's sticker price was more than half a million dollars -- but the city received important assistance from the Capital City Development Corp., Boise's redevelopment agency, which split the cost of the ladder truck. CCDC Executive Director Phil Kushlan joined me, City Council member Alan Shealy and Fire Chief Dennis Doan in dedicating the truck on Tuesday.

The arrival of the new ladder truck is particularly timely given the changing face of downtown Boise. The city and CCDC recently collaborated on changes to the building code to allow multi-level wood-frame construction in the central core. Those changes have already borne fruit in the form of several new high-density residential projects downtown, including CitySide Lofts, located just a few blocks from Fire Station 5. The new ladder truck will ensure appropriate emergency response is in place as downtown continues to develop. 

I've visited many cities of Boise's size in recent years, and none of them has the kind of vibrant, safe and economically vigorous city that we enjoy. Ladder Truck 5 will help us keep it that way.

Until next time ...